Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo – 10

One of the things I’ve liked about Sakurasou since the beginning is how well the whole cast is utilized. With a romcom like this, it could easily have been the Sorata-and-his-love-interests show, but it’s not. Not only Misaki and Jin, but other characters are getting good screen time and even character development now. This time it was still Rita’s turn in the spotlight – which was to be expected, this being her arc – but also Akasaka’s as well.

Though it probably reflects badly on me, I like Akasaka a lot. As I’m fond of noting, I’m a liar – as a marketer by profession and a storyteller by passion (note: there’s very little difference between the two), it comes with the territory. That said, I respect someone who can sling the unvarnished truth, provided they’re also perceptive enough to see it. In Akasaka, we have exactly that. I enjoyed it when he called Rita out on her manipulative, two-faced bullshit. He was right – it’s not that Mashiro breaks people, but that Rita was too weak. Stand near greatness, and you will either become great yourself, or be destroyed. We know what happened to Rita. Care to guess where Sorata is headed?

That said, there are risks in being truly honest. Akasaka was not wrong when he confronted Rita, but he was certainly harsh–brutally so. Everyone says that it’s better to be honest, right? Well observe the effects of pure honesty. To shade the truth, to shield the blow is to be less than honest – it’s lying by inches. Akasaka was completely right, and yet for a while there he was the villain. I think that sometimes honesty is overrated, and it’s the liar you want next to you, to gently guide you towards the truth.

As for why Rita was so twisted out of shape…communicate, people! (No, not that way…okay, that’s fine too.) Actually, let me go back – those other people at Rita’s grandfather’s atelier? They were a bit petty. If you can’t match someone, then you should try harder, and if you still can’t match them – hard work won’t give you everything, unfortunately – then go do something else! The world is vast, and there is something out there that each of us can be the best at, even if it’s not what we dreamed about doing as kids. I can understand the jealousy and the disappointment, but coming to hate what you once loved? If that’s all it took, then perhaps you didn’t really love it at all.

Rita, though, held on longer than anyone else. I understand and sympathize with how hard it can be to constantly be next to someone who is so much better than you, someone you can’t hope to match. In truth, Sorata and Jin are lucky, because while they live with insanely talented women, at least they’re focusing it towards different things – they’re not direct competitors. That said, I still find myself agreeing with Sorata once again. Good people want to work with brilliant people, on the off chance that some of that greatness rubs off (that is, they learn something). Besides, there’s nothing better than being a part – no matter how small! – of a great project. Still, at least Rita and Mashiro finally started communicating again. Bad feelings fester when communication breaks down. Hopefully they won’t let that happen again.

In the end, while the central conflict was weaker than previous ones (I prefer misunderstandings to lead to comedy, not drama), there were some warm moments in the end. I knew from early on that Rita would get recruited to help bring Nyaboron to life, but what I really enjoyed was Sorata giving a successful presentation this time. I didn’t expect it so soon, but it was nice to see him stand up and succeed where he once failed, woo!

Finally, the “villain” Akasaka got thanks for his harsh but necessary words…and a little something more. Scared Akasaka was hilarious! That’s it, I’m making it official – I am now shipping Akasaka x Rita! I mean, it works out perfectly. Every couple needs a genius (Mashiro, Misaki, Aksaka) and a struggling, unsure hard-worker (Sorata, Jin, Rita). Plus, the thought of Kawasumi Ayako pursuing Hocchan is just too good to pass up. Sorry Meido-chan, you’ve been replaced by a 3D girl. Deal with it!

Next time we get to see more of Nyaboron in action, and then this. Oh man, this is going to confuse Zephyr so much!!

For a minute there, I thought Rita had lied about having quit painting when it was revealed that she was a professional painter. It makes sense, though…Mashiro only started drawing manga recently. Another sign that Rita lasted much longer than the others, and that perhaps some of that greatness rubbed off.

By the way, Rita’s grandfather is the real villain in all of this. Who tells someone to stop painting just because they’ll never be as good as a friggin’ genius? Much less his own granddaughter, ugh!

Mashiro really doesn’t have a jealous bone in her body…partly because she’s just that good, but mostly because she’s that focused. Very impressive, very sweet.

I like Rita more now. Sure, she got owned big time, but when all was said in done she stuck to her guns about wanting Mashiro to go back to painting. I don’t agree, but just because she was wrong on some things doesn’t mean she has to capitulate on everything. I don’t hate that kind of stubbornness.

“Actually, let me go back – those other people at Rita’s grandfather’s atelier? Selfish and petty. If you can’t match someone, then you should try harder, and if you still can’t match them – hard work won’t give you everything, unfortunately – then go do something else!”

Really? Are you planning on telling 8 years old children that they are selfish and petty and that they should give up on their dreams if they will never be as good?

No, I’m saying that they should not give up on their dreams even if they won’t be that good! Mind you, it might be wiser to redirect their skills towards something else, but that’s something that comes with age…for them, quitting just because they don’t think they can be the best (and hating what they once loved) is silly. Though, seeing as they’re kids, that is more or less par for the course…we’re all a bit stupid when we’re kids, after all :P lol

At that age, when you have a kid painting on a level where they are more or less training to be a recognized artist, there’s a lot of their parents in the equation. There parents think they’ll be great, so they’re there, and the money being spent isn’t small. Then either the parents see how much better someone else is and decides to stop devoting the money, or the kid throws a fit and the parent pulls them to either spare their ego or not to hear the whining. At six to sixteen years old there aren’t many big choices like that made without the parents sticking their nose in.

So yeah, unless Rita has kept close contact with every single student who quit, she really doesn’t know if Shiina broke any of them for good. More projecting.

Eh, granted. I’m still right, but I didn’t remember how young some of them were at the time (though by the end, Rita should have known better…she’s only now catching up). I edited the post to soften up my language a bit~

Personally I see the whole thing from an innovation vs revolution perspective. I can understand how it feels to stand in the shadows of greatness and that feeling of being broken is something that I can empathize. I disagree however with Rita’s approach of doing things.

Suppose you are fighting a man who had train in the martial arts for years – how could you possibly beat them? The answer: use a gun. You’re facing a foe with the fastest horse in the world, how do beat them in a race? The answer: use a car.

Rita’s problem is she had been using the same methods that Mashiro had been using – if she had think differently and approach it in a different way, the results would have been probably been different. To beat a superior foe you must approach them in a different way – if they have quantity you beat them with quality. If they have swords, you use guns. Basically, use an asymmetrical way to achieve what you want.

Yeah, I found Akasaka to be pretty impressive, since he saw that Rita was jealous of Shina’s talent and how she failed people’s expectations, but she never really said what she wanted. This makes me feel that there will always be someone that will be talented in what you like to do, but in a way, that’s an opportunity to get better and see all kind of results that you can make just from perseverence.

hmm….that’s why non-talented people is sad. It’s like seeing how the basketball player from China that practice 24/7 but never will be as good as the black guy. They need to realize that they just need to pretend they have the talent like what Apple is doing. If your product is shit, just do some dubious marketing that your product is better than other and dumb customer will buy your product. Then , they can use the money from the dumb customers to make a real product. Same case with Skullcandy and Edison electricity

I actually wonder if Rita’s grandfather said something as blatant as “You should give up, you’ll never be as good as Mashiro.” As far as we know, Rita’s also a 16-17 year old girl, right? Maybe 18-19? An age where people with fragile egos are prone to misinterpret things that are said to them? Anime likes to make ogres of people, especially older people, but usually they’re not like that. I’d put the chances at better than 50% that he might have said “Mashiro is out of your reach.” But “You should never paint again”? I find that a bit unbelievable. I’m far more likely to believe that that’s what Rita’s mind heard, but not what was actually said.

Hard to say. I mean if they were painting at Rita’s grandfathers that must mean he’s a pretty decent artist or at least very interested in it. Easily possible he was frustrated that his grandaughter wasn’t as good as Mashiro and couldn’t be the elite that he’d hoped for. Not that she couldn’t paint professionally, but maybe that wasn’t good enough for him.

It’s possible she misinterpreted it, but it’s possible she didn’t. We know nothing about this guy by which to make our guess. Figure we might as well take her words at face value for now.

Actually, that’s an interesting thought, Highway. Outright falsehoods seem less common in fiction than in real life, because if the author is just going to have all the characters lie, how the hell is the reader supposed to figure anything out? Still, it’s entirely possible. More than anything else, I just don’t think it will be a factor again…but who knows? An interesting thought, to be sure!

Mm. It’s possible. The actual Japanese script for it doesn’t have a particular negative connotation to it (other than the way Rita’s hurling it at the rest of them, anyway), and are words that I can easily see a grandfather saying to a grandchild who seems obsessed with trying to outdo someone she can never catch.

Whichever way it was meant, though, the actual effect of the words is obvious from the episode. So at the very least said grandfather wasn’t very good at doing damage control. :P

Good insight to have. I wonder if the grandfather’s real
intent was to teach her to put herself into her work,
not try to match/be someone else. When you’re competing,
the one who crosses the line first (as in a race) has no
clue who was behind him – they don’t care.

We must not forget that Mashiro is a serialized manga artist,after being rejected. She isn’t perfect, and is not dissuaded
by setbacks in her work.

Have to say I was almost cheering on Akasaka there. I mean someone had to fire off the truth. Everyone else was willing to just stand there while Mashiro got ripped into. While some might have understood the truth, no one was willing to confront an upset Rita to deliver it. Akasaka just said it straight and true. Everyone might have been upset at him for it, but it was what helped clear up things. Rita wasn’t going to look at her own weakness or see that she’d stopped thinking about what she wanted to do.

Plus he was the one who picked up the bags that everyone had dumped in order to chase Rita down. Why I’m not sure since I can’t imagine the bags were slowing them down much. In the end throw out the old saying, truth hurts. Especially when you aren’t being honest with yourself. Glad in the end though at least Rita got where he was coming from. Though of course part of it was payback by making him extremely uncomfortable XD.

Good that communication cleared the air. Mashiro didn’t express how happy she was having people paint with her, but doesn’t seem like anyone reached out to her either. Too consumed with her genius to remember that a person was painting the pictures.

That’s not it FlareKnight, neither Sorata nor Nanami said anything because they know what Rita is feeling as they have experienced it themselves- The ugly feeling of jealousy and failure despite the hardwork you have put in, and that you will never be as good as those with talent.

Maybe felt something simmilar but Rita´s jelousy was far seriuos than theirs because she was surpass with such ease in the same field, that´s why her envy was turning into hatred for friend. I pitty her but that´s not an excuse for her behavior, you think you´re good?, there is always someone better than you so it´s normal to feel envy but not to the extent to make that person your dreams for you, that´s beyond selfish. Ryounosuke really did good work in this episode, who knows how much hurt whould she had done to Mashiro otherwise.

I do undestand, it´s just ugly to see Rita taking out her anger in an innocent being like Mashiro, she might a little out of reality but she´s in truth very fragile emotionally as far as it´s being shown.

I think the problem I had was that they were too busy understanding Rita and not supporting Mashiro. The person who stepped up for both of them during their moments of crisis was getting ripped into and they just stood there. Certainly Sorata should understand the feeling of getting blindsided by something.

Someone had to step up here. They certainly could understand Rita’s feelings, but should have also been able to understand how in the wrong Rita was.

Personally, and this is my personal opinion, I think it’s good for Mashiro to take in all of that. As she admits herself, she never understood jealousy and how that would lead to people hating her, she just carried on in her little world of painting and not cared about the other children. It is a form of naivety and one that could get her into trouble without realizing why… Heck, it almost cost her a dear friend.

I think that sometimes honesty is overrated, and it’s the liar you want next to you, to gently guide you towards the truth.

It depends on the person in question, I think. If the person who happens to need a healthy dose of cold, hard truth is someone with a crummy sense of self-worth, then I would suppose that the gentle white liar would be the best option. Conversely, if he’s an arrogant douche desperately in need of some humble pie, then he might be better served by blunt honesty. Adjust accordingly along the spectrum for anyone in between…

By the way, Rita’s grandfather is the real villain in all of this. Who tells someone to stop painting just because they’ll never be as good as a friggin’ genius? Much less his own granddaughter, ugh!

Lamentably, adults forcing unrealistic expectations onto their progeny isn’t exactly an uncommon occurrence. I remember there being a slew of news articles about Asian tiger moms not too long ago. It tends to happen as a result of ordinary parents trying to live their own dreams through their kids, or as is the case here, over-achieving parents expecting their kids to be just as great as them, and in the same field. Often the kid is perfectly capable of attaining the level of success that the parent figure is demanding of them, just not in the field that they’re being forced into- and they end up never uncovering their true talent because they were never given the freedom to search for it in the first place…

Stand near greatness, and you will either become great yourself, or be destroyed.

Or, you become a house-husband (Spoiler for the Sorata’s fate at the ending, people!) jk

One cannot deny that struggling and failing at everything you try can be right discouraging, though.

I’m an all-or-nothing kinda guy- and the one thing that I’ve always thought I had an aptitude for (drawing) has fallen short. I.E. I’m 26 and it couldn’t put food on the table nor a roof above my head.

I’m currently a carpenter, and I like my job well enough- but it is somewhat depressing to think that I maybe had potential to be great- only to ultimately be just another brick in the wall.

I would say – though I’m quick to note that you should think hard before taking advice from an anime blogger – that all that means is you haven’t found what you’re truly great at. What I wanted to do as a kid didn’t pan out, but that doesn’t bother me now…I have other skills and other dreams that I’m pursuing now.

Discouraging, yes, but only if you’re striving towards the wrong thing. When you find that right thing, all the struggles and failures feel like progress, and though it’s by no means easy, the feeling that you’re getting ahead with each step drives you forward…or so it has been in my experience : )

Don’t misconstrue “the best” with the “absolute unequivocal best-there-ever-was super genius greatest-in-the-world unbeatable master.” One can be the best – or among the best…often being in the top 1-5% is just as valuable as being the absolute #1, what with diminishing returns and all that – in many different fields with enough effort, and that is possible for us all.

Sure, it might be that we can’t all excel in the field in which we’re employed in, but there are millions of endeavors humans can excel at, should we so choose. To say otherwise is a failure of imagination.

Honestly it felt to me like Akasaka was the only one who made sense when the argument started. Giving up something because you’re supposed to be best is a reason now? In any art field like painting, music or sculpting it’s pretty much impossible that you’ll ever be seen as better than people who lived centuries before you. Rather the reason you should be doing it is because you enjoy doing it and there are other people who enjoy seeing you do it as well. While the others provided the emotional support she needed after the break down it was pretty obvious Akasaka was the one who made her see how meaningless giving up so easily was and she’s aware of it.

Also that whole you need a presentation thing felt needless and simply put there to make us see Sorata has grown but I’ll take that as the student council president being petty against Jin. I doubt there can actually be any school that’s going to be against professional artists making a show during their festival or a high-tech game showing much less both combined.

Can’t quite agree with you on the honesty issue, especially when you talk about ‘gently guiding’ them. Gentle guidance is necessary, and honesty is definitely valued when people are attempting to get things done their way by lying and half-truths, but there is a time to do gentle guidance and there is a time to do brutal honesty. Ryuunosuke almost got that part right. Thing is, he does have a problem with communicating anything other than the harsh truth he sees fit. This guy’s probably never really interacted much with people other than those from Sakurasou, so the issue is probably more with his personality.

Anyway, it was good on him to do that. Caught up in the emotional atmosphere, I had thought someone with less patience would have given Rita a slap to snap her back to her senses. Thankfully it never happened and things panned out well to a ending filled with the warmth, laughter and hope the series has made itself known for.

Regarding Rita, I can understand how she feels. In fact, Sorata’s comparison actually showed how strong she actually is underneath before she reached her breaking point. I know how it feels like to have a talented friend who you are close to, but feel like you could never quite connect because of the gulf in talent and ability. I know how it feels like to work so very hard to catch up and do what you love but subconsciously knowing you can never catch up, and I’ve very nearly hated what I loved in the past. While others can see that, Rita has it much worse in the sense that Mashiro is a very special kind of genius that is pretty much oblivious to anything else other than her painting at that point in time. Sakurasou’s changed her though, just as it changed Rita for the better. :)

Blaming others out of pure frustration and disappointment is understandable, but to keep harboring it and lashing out eventually is wrong. To me, Rita feels very, very real, because there are a lot of people out there in the world harboring disappointments and frustrations as well as the corpse of dead dreams in their lives because certain things happen or they couldn’t match up. The moment Ryuunosuke mentioned the fake smiles and her lashing out was the moment I started liking her character so much more.

Anyway, for that little rant, I gotta say it was pretty nice watching Sakurasou and Rita working together for Nyanboron, and I’m hoping there can be more juicy backstory on Jin and the StuCo prez.

Makes sense. I think that, whereas past episodes resonated with me more (ep4, ep8), this one struck you. That’s one of the things this show seems to do well…one person’s decent arc is another’s BEST. ARC. EVAR!!

I wondered if that’s a significant difference between Japanese culture and culture elsewhere. In some places, Akasaka
would be the leader in the “group intervention” with the others rallying behind him in support as he challenged Rita.
So, for my cultural background, it seemed odd that he was scolded for confronting Rita, even though the group agreed
with what he was saying (it’s not as though he was out of character when he spoke). I also believe Rita’s motivation was/is
much darker than simple jealousy. I think she was trying to “own” Mashiro.

She’s only postponed her effort to take Mashiro back to England, she still sports her fake smile and hasn’t really changed.

There’s an interesting principal explained as well — don’t let other’s hold you back. Mashiro was/is truly oblivious to her
“high place” when she was painting. This wasn’t through conceit, though. You see, Mashiro has (at least) two gifts: her
ability to appeal through her art, and her ability to maintain that focus through the tryings of her peers. It makes perfect
sense that Mashiro didn’t know the effect she was having on Rita (and the others); but that’s not a fair thing to say, is it?

If Mashiro, as I believe, was acting without malice, of course she wouldn’t know the trouble she was causing for the otherlosers students. Their putting their failure on Mashiro’s shoulders — would they put the responsibility of their success on Mashiro’s shoulders — NO! Peer pressure works both ways — it can lead you to do (good and bad) things and stop you
from doing things, especially those things that are good for you.

Hang with the wrong group of peers, and you definitely won’t realize your potential; network with peers that are where you
want/need to be, and chances are, you’ll realize your potential (succeed).

I found it interesting how Rita blamed the way Shiina is. Shiina was happy as a clam painting along with Rita (and maybe the others), but because she doesn’t say anything or interact on a “normal” level they didn’t get her personality, so they “broke”. So, what? If Rita was the more talented one it would’ve been better because she would’ve smiled and patted everyone else on the head, even if she didn’t help them, while Shiina moving along at her own pace is bad because they felt left out? It’s not Shiina’s fault she’s a “special” kind of cute!

It also came off as a lot of pressure from parents/guardians who found it unacceptable that anyone could be better than their kids, so the kids obviously weren’t trying hard enough. Gotta love parental expectations when you’re “competing” with a possible legend-in-progress.

“I know and understand but it still hurts me”
Do you understand what I’m trying to say? This is an exception to the other children in the same class in England since they don’t understand Mashiiro. Rita on the other hand understands Mashiiro since they’re close but yet at the same time, she’s only human and she still end up getting affected by her feelings. During their reconciliations scene, you can see that Rita not only suffers from jealousy from standing next to someone like Mashiiro for so long, but she also have a major case of insecurities in which she’s afraid that Mashiiro does not even see her. That insecurity is later fixed when Mashiiro understood and told her that it’s not true that Mashiiro does not see her. So no, she wasn’t trying to own Mashiiro.

“She’s only postponed her effort to take Mashiro back to England, she still sports her fake smile and hasn’t really changed.”
No that’s her really smile and she has changed. It’s just she’s no longer will be forceful and that she will try but if it fails, she will fine with it. It’s different.

Another fantastic episode! I appreciate how this show doesn’t leave us off on cliffhangers and usually resolves it’s issues within the week (although it’s nice sometimes to be left hanging, but not constantly).

At first I was simmering and glowering at Rita the entire time- telling Mashiro she wished she never existed! I understand she was just speaking out of all that pent-up jealousy and was frustrated with her own shortcomings, but that’s never an acceptable thing to tell a person, let alone someone that close to you :’( When I saw Mashiro’s tears, I lost it and just thought “Someone had BETTER give her a hug!” And I must say I’m glad they did :3 And now I’m okay with Rita, so it’s nice not to dislike a character.

I liked this episode’s drama as well as the character development. I loved how brutally blunt Ryuu was, Sorata’s healing words and successful presentation, and Nanami’s handkerchief (they still managed to make me laugh!)
As always, great episode, Sakurasou! Next week should be fun as well!~

God, I loved Akasaka this episode. It’s good to have a character around who just says what needs to be said (as harsh as it is) rather than have everyone dance around the issue. That is in general why I like this show so much; the characters aren’t idiots. I was already fearing that Sorata was going to blow his earlier stance (let Mashiro do what she wants) into the wind and try to convince her to go back, but he kept his cool (“No use trying to convince me. She won’t listen to me anyway.”). Akasaka, who’s brutally honest, called out Rita on her faults and egotism. Rita herself (man her grandpa is a dick) realised she was wrong after her rant and reconciled with Mashiro. Mashiro herself realised that poor communication kills, and so on. Watching these characters interact and grow has been a truly pleasant experience so far.

The central conflict may have been weaker, but the execution was still very well done.

why do you have to be best at something? can’t you just be good? sure, some people have great talents, but it’s like saying a person who reads a top-ranking manga doesn’t read manga from lower ranks too. if you’re not talented in something, it doesn’t mean you’re not good or you shouldn’t enjoy it. just go on with what you feel good in, there are people who will surely recognise it.

my god i hate rita shes by far the worst thing in this anime. here stupid self importance and blaming her friend for being herself and then doing a 180 with everybody find with that. i was practically cheering when Akasaka called her out on it.

I think one of the main things I enjoy about the show is Stilt’s loquacious enthusiasm for it (no hidden paragraphs? for shame!). Granted it’s still a fun show that I can’t help but come back to, but I don’t think reviews have ever been such a direct part of the viewing experience…

Oh gawd, the devastated I-have-no-idea-why-people-hate-me Mashiro was a pain to watch. I really wanted to hug the poor thing T-T

Damn, this series is resonating so much with me… I’m one of the people who are good at virtually everything, but excel in nothing. I took up drawing because it’s something that I’ve genuinely enjoyed since primary school, but I’ve since come to realise that I’ll probably never even reach the level of some of my friends, not to mention any professionals.

It’s a really depressing thought, one that can easily break a person’s motivation. Even if I’m above the “I can barely draw a stick man” level, being average at something that you like sucks big time.

Luckily, shows like Bakuman and Sakurasou keep reminding me that I shouldn’t quit just because I’m not very good at it.

I suppose I could see how standing near someone of genius could hurt if you’re the type of person that needs to be the best at everything. Then you can’t accept that they’re pulling ahead of you and throw a hissy-fit like Rita and end up projecting and being a weak, whiny person until you grow up. Fact is, no one is ever the best at anything. There’s always someone better. If not now, then in the past, or if not then, in the near future. If you can’t be happy learning and bettering yourself with the superior skill of those around you or those in the same field as you, you probably want to reevaluate your choice of career. If you think you’ve stopped improving at something and need to blame someone else for it, you aren’t trying hard enough anymore. No one effects your potential one way or another unless you let them.

Glad Sorata got himself a bit more together. Looks like he’ll fight for Shiina to stick around now at least. Akasaka rocks out loud!!

Sorata is in a different position. He’s not Shiina’s direct competitor. Rita is Shiina’s direct competitor and close friend. Another difference is that it’s not simply a small or moderate difference in skills like your deal with others in a typical high school but an enormous difference. We’re talking genius level here. The difference in skills between “you” a more normal but talented individual for your age against someone who is on that national level.

I understand how being next to someone that does nothing but succeed can be discouraging, but Rita was going on like Shiina was sabotaging her. Rita was still a recognized artist. Shiina was better than her, but not really in her way. That’s why I was cheering when Akasaka smacked some sense into Rita: it’s about what she wants and she can do, no one else. Granted it wasn’t fair if her grandfather actually told her to quit painting because of Shiina, but that’s a whole different type of stupidity on his part.

This isn’t the first time Hocchan and Kawasumi Ayako have appeared together, their most recent was in the final season of Zero no Tsukaima earlier this year, but their interchange as Akasaka and Rita has got to be the most intriguing I’ve seen as Hocchan is filling the role of the guy opposite Kawasumi rather than as her competitor for someone else’s harem (Sister Princess and ToHeart comes to mind).

So yeah, not only am I approving Akasaka x Rita, I’m also suddenly rooting for Horie Yui x Kawasumi Ayako for no reason. XD

Poor Mashiro, she looked quite devastated when Rita lashed out at her on an issue a genius like her would never understand. But despite Rita’s initial outburst, Mashiro shows she does value her bonds with other people, it’s just that her genius often gets in the way, but Rita was the first person to connect to her (before her grandfather interfered and meddled with Rita’s thoughts).

I must admit, like Nanami, I cried manly tears (not as much as for Key games) when Rita made up with her.

A major change from the novel is that the Sakurasou Cultural Festival project gets approved by the Student Council and Rita staying for the Cultural Festival next episode. The novel had Sorata’s presentation interrupted by a future dramatic event (which has also apparently been shifted to after the Cultural Festival for the anime) pissing off the Student Council President, who we’ve been introduced this episode as quite a stuck-up asshole.

Still, not even that stopped the eccentrics of Sakurasou from deciding to go ahead with staging the Nyaboron play clandestinely beneath the Council’s noses.

I really really dont get inferiority complex or superiority complex, know why? CUZ NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE, NO MATTER HOW TALENTED, SMART, RICH YOU ARE, THERE WILL ALWAYS ALWAYS GOING TO BE SOMEONE BETTER THAN YOU ARE! IT MAY NOT BE IN THE PRESENT, BUT THERE WAS SOMEONE BETTER THAN YOU IN THE PAST OR THERE WILL BE SOMEONE BETTER THAN YOU IN THE NEAR FUTURE!

Whoa, easy there, son. Shonen laws of the universe dictate that if we are told that a work is good, brilliant, or some other form of praise, then we have to swallow our disbelief for the sake of the story. The same law also exists in Bakuman. Mashiro’s paintings, for a art connoisseur like yourself, may appear to be bad, but the artistic content or process is secondary to core storyline.

To be honest, I think their main mistake was in showing the picture…paintings are too subjective and badly understood (by myself as well) for anything they could have done to look really good in anime-form. But seriously, chillax :P

Ohandbytheway, the reason Kyouya’s painting was so great was that it was used as an illustrative technique for him learning to break outside of the box imposed on him and become great in his own way. The scene was phenomenal, probably my favorite one of the Ouran anime over all. The painting itself? Nice, but I wouldn’t straight throwing out the word “art” (as in the visual equivalent of “literature”) for it alone. Context matters.

Everyone is on the outside so they can see what Rita is doing is wrong. Now what happen if you ARE Rita. You are no longer in the position as an observer but are in fact the “victim” of such a situation. You will no longer be sure that you are able to see how you are acting and how you are behaving. It’s similar to those who said, “if I was there, I can do it” which in fact in many cases, does not happen.

On the other hand, I’m glad that Ryuunosuke is someone who is just blunt and honest which is just great as he just completely goes into the root of the problem, rip it out, and then shows it. We need someone like that to solve many of the world’s problem. However what he lacks is in how delivers it. Fortunately everything works out so it’s alright. Either way I’m glad that he was there.

On Rita’s case, I could also say that Mashiiro has a fault in it. Rita have been dealing with this for over 10 years. It’s a surprise she hasn’t completely broken yet because dealing with this type of internal struggle for so long could really break someone. In that regards, Rita is actually quite a strong person and not weak as some would say she is. Why would I say Shiina is partly at fault? First she admits it that she never understood anything and was really shocked and felt bad when all the “bad” stuff was revealed. 2nd, she just does what she does and never think about what goes around her. The 2nd point is like a yin and yang. Yin in that she’s focused and knows what she wants. Yang is the ending result of that part of her which ends up hurting Rita who Shiina does treasure but yet does not understand.

Also with Rita, of course she’s at fault so I don’t need to rehash everything that people say but one thing that I do got to say is that, he’s a lot stronger than the people I have encountered in life who lived next to genuises. They end up almost like those other friends of Rita and Shiina back in England.

On a side note, damn it Nanami. Why are you so cute?! She’s so cute when she starts crying during Shiina and Rita’s reconciliations.

Well this episode showed me not to buy into the troll cliff-hanger endings like they showed in the last episode. They completely took my expectations of what would happen this episode and threw them out the window. I am continually impressed with how well they are able to mold the story together and have each character play a significant role. I am glad that Sorata’s personality wasn’t thrown off the ship like I expected, and I guess I can only blame myself for thinking they would do so. And I think that Akasaka was right in his brutal honesty in that argument. Yeah it was harsh, but do you really expect Rita to buy into some half-assed truth from someone she knows has issue with her being around Sorata? No. He had to lay it to her straight to give her the wake-up call she needed. And TBH he wasn’t that harsh. The truth just hurt when we don’t want to hear it.

PS Dat scene with Rita and Mashiro hugging while Nanami was getting teary-eyed in the background. Not only do you want to be in the middle of that hug, but seeing Nanami getting all emotional was too cute to handle.

What I don’t understand is when Akasaka argue with Rita,then Rita run off,Why all of them except Akasaka follow and cheer for Rita? Don’t they understand Rita is completely wrong here,condemned her whole-best-ten-years-friend as if all of it is Shiina fault.What a friend.